How to make a claim and what happens during the claim process
Who can make a claim?
You can make a claim of abuse or neglect if you:
- were in the care, custody, guardianship, or came to the notice of the Child Welfare Division, the Department of Social Welfare, the New Zealand Children and Young Persons Service or Child, Youth and Family before 1 April 2017, and
- believe you were harmed as a result of abuse or neglect while in care.
If you are unsure when you were in care or if you can make a claim, please contact us.
How do I make a claim?
You can talk to us about making a claim by:
- completing the Claim Registration form and sending it to historicclaims@msd.govt.nz
- calling 0800 631 127 and speaking with a Historic Claims staff member
- emailing historicclaims@msd.govt.nz
- writing to the Ministry of Social Development, Historic Claims, PO Box 1556, Wellington 6140
You can speak with a lawyer to get their help to make a claim. They will be able to let you know if you can get legal aid.
You can include a support person(s) to assist you through the process, this can include having someone act on your behalf. You can speak to us about this at any point during the process.
Historic Claims can help with any support you may need while going through the claim process. This could include connecting you with a counsellor or referring you to a service in your community. It may take quite some time before we begin working on your claim, so it is important that you are supported while you wait – it’s your decision if you’d like to receive support through us.
What happens during the claim process?
When you first contact us, we will tell you about the claim process and answer any questions you have. We will also ask you for some information about yourself and your care experience so that we can make sure you are eligible to register a claim and that we have your contact details and preferred method of contact.
Once your eligibility has been confirmed, these are key steps you’ll go through during the claim process:
- You can request copies of your personal files with information from your time in care that we have collected from Oranga Tamariki for the purposes of assessing your claim.
- You can request support while engaging with the claims process.
- We will contact you when your claim is ready to be allocated to talk through your assessment options.
- You will have the opportunity to tell us about your experience in care.
- We will talk to you about the outcome of your assessment.
Receiving information about your time in care
If you have questions about your time in state care, we can assist with this. For some people, it may be helpful to receive a copy of your personal files from your time in care. This can be requested at any time through the claim process. These particular personal files are collected from Oranga Tamariki for the purposes of assessing your claim.
Some information may be withheld to protect the privacy of other people, or for another reason permitted under the Privacy Act 2020.
You can also talk to us if you have any questions about your file.
Understanding your assessment options
When we begin working on your claim, a staff member will contact you to discuss your assessment options. There are two types of assessments that you can choose from; a rapid payment or an individualised claim assessment.
Rapid payments can be calculated quickly because the assessment focuses on the length of time you were involved with Child, Youth and Family or its predecessor agencies. This acknowledges that the longer a person has been involved with the State, the more likely they will have experienced repeated harm. Additional payments are then added to claims which include particular placements or where a person’s legal rights may have been potentially breached. Payments range from $10,000 to $30,000.
An individualised claim assessment will consider your specific concerns and care experience so you will need to share your experiences while you were in care with us. The assessment will begin by confirming your involvement with the State, including if the State was legally responsible for you at the times your claim covers. As part of this assessment, we always review your personal state care files. A full review of other relevant records is not carried out for every concern you raise; however some concerns may require a more detailed assessment. This will take longer to complete.
Sharing your experience of being in care
A key part of our claim process is giving people the opportunity to share their experiences of being in care with us. This is needed if you choose an individualised claim assessment so that we can understand the concerns you would like us to consider. Though for those who request a rapid payment, you will have a choice about whether you share your specific concerns with us.
For anyone who wishes to share their story, we will listen to you about your experience. You can share your story in person, by phone, video or you might like to share your experience in writing. Any meeting held will be at a time and place which works for you and will be respectful of your culture and values. You are welcome to have a support person with you.
Outcome
When the assessment is finished, we will make contact with you to discuss the outcome which may include making a payment offer. If you have chosen an individualised claim assessment, we can also give you general feedback gathered from reviewing your file. This may include a timeline of your time in state care.
A written apology from our Chief Executive may also be part of your offer. If you accept the offer then we will arrange this for you.
You can take time to think about any offer and choose if you want to accept it or not. You may also choose to seek legal advice.
If your offer includes a payment, and you accept the offer, we will arrange for this to be made and close your claim.
Offer not accepted
If you don’t accept our offer, we will talk to you about what other options are available, including asking for a review of your individualised claim assessment. If you haven’t received a rapid payment offer, you may also be able to request one.
We will talk with you about this and how long it may take.
You may also choose to seek legal advice.
Review of individualised claim assessment
If your individualised claim assessment is reviewed, we will go through our decision with you once the review is finished. There may also be further information found during the review of your individualised claim assessment we can give you.
As a result of the review, we may discuss with you a payment offer. This payment offer could be higher or lower than any original offer.
Again, you should take time to think about this offer and choose to either accept it or take your claim through the courts, or to an independent organisation such as the Ombudsman.
Can I stop my claim at any time?
You can put your claim on hold at any time. This means we will not do any further work to progress your claim. This hold can be removed at any point if you change your mind.
Policy about the Limitation Act
The Limitation Act 1950 and the Limitation Act 2010 can provide a legal defence to a claim if certain periods of time have passed since the events that the claim is about. Filing your claim in court stops the counting of time for limitation purposes.
However, you are not disadvantaged if you try and resolve your claim directly with MSD before filing your claim in Court. The Ministry of Social Development has developed a policy with other historic abuse Crown agencies (the Ministry of Education and Oranga Tamariki). The Ministry’s policy means that while you are engaging with the Historic Claims process this time is not counted for the purposes of calculating timeframes under limitation law.
If you have any questions about the policy, we recommend that you seek legal advice.
What we do with the information you share with us
We know the information you share with us is very personal to you. The Ministry has to collect and hold the information you give us to respond to your claim. We may also need to share your concerns with Oranga Tamariki or an NGO to ensure children receiving care in services today are kept safe or to be able to accurately respond to your claim.
If you have any concerns about your information being shared, for example if you are concerned that this may put you at risk in any way, please let us know so we can talk with you about this and what we can do to address your concerns.
Criminal investigations
If your complaint is about criminal conduct then the Ministry may, after making sure we are legally able to share information about the alleged offending with the Police. If you would like the Police to investigate what happened to you, we would encourage you to contact them. We will help connect you with someone there you can share your experience with.
